Death toll rises to 148 in US-Israeli attack on Iranian school

Tehran: The death toll from a joint US-Israeli strike on a girls’ elementary school in Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan rose to 148, local media reported on Sunday.

The attack also left 95 people wounded, local prosecutor Ebrahim Taheri was quoted as saying by semi-official Tasnim news agency.

He said the majority of the victims of the brutal attack were pupils, with teachers, school staff and students’ parents also among the dead, reports Xinhua, quoting the Tasnim news agency.

On Saturday morning, Israel and the United States launched joint attacks on Tehran and several other Iranian cities, including Tabriz, Qom, Isfahan, Kermanshah, and Karaj. Iran responded with missile and drone strikes targeting Israel and US bases across the region.

The attacks on Tehran killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Secretary of the country’s Defence Council Ali Shamkhani and Mohammad Pakpour, chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Meanwhile, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Saturday night that military strikes on Iran are still underway.

“CENTCOM is now delivering swift and decisive action as directed,” the command said in a post on X.

In another post issued on Saturday afternoon, the command said so far there have been no reported US casualties and no US Navy ship has been struck.

“Damage to US installations was minimal and has not impacted operations,” it added.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Saturday night arguably described the campaign, named Operation Epic Fury, as “the most lethal, most complex, and most-precision aerial operation in history.”

Iran’s “missiles will be destroyed, along with Iran’s missile production. The Iranian navy will be destroyed. And, as President Trump has said his entire life, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said in the statement.

General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., a former head of the US Central Command, told US media outlets on Saturday that the next 72 to 96 hours will be crucial in determining whether Iran can sustain a heavy barrage of retaliatory missile strikes against US bases and partners in the Middle East.

IANS